Alice breaks the tension first. “Okay,” she chirps, clapping her hands lightly. “Let’s not turn this into an intervention.”
“Too late,” Jett mutters.
She ignores him, which instantly sets him on edge. “Let’s talk about the actual case,” she continues, oblivious to what she did to Jett’s emotions. “Because this isn’t the first time I’ve seen something like this.”
That gets my attention, as well as Scott’s.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Alice leans back in her chair, crossing her arms. “Couple of years ago,” she says, “we ran calls in a different district. Same kind of setup. Run-down buildings, low traffic, people minding their own business because they didn’t want trouble.”
My stomach tightens.
“Trafficking ring?” Scott asks.
She nods. “They used abandoned properties,” she continues. “Moved people in and out constantly. Never stayed in one place too long.”
“That’s what the woman said,” I murmur, glancing at Scott who nods in confirmation.
“Exactly,” Alice says. “Keeps them harder to track. Victims don’t know where they are half the time, and even if they do, by the time someone checks it out? They’re gone.”
Jett leans forward, elbows on his knees. “We’d get calls sometimes,” he adds. “Overdose, injuries, panic attacks. But they were always vague. Different locations. No patterns that could be pinned down.”
“Until there was one,” Scott guesses quietly.
Alice nods again. “There’s always one.”
A chill runs through me. “What happened?” I ask.
She hesitates, just for a second. “A fire,” she says.
Of course it was.
“One of the victims started it,” she continues. “Same as this one. Only difference is… that time, they didn’t get as many people out.”
A heavy silence falls over the room.
“They escalated after that,” Jett recalls.
“How?” I ask.
He grimaces. “Tighter control. More movement. Less chance for anyone to fight back.”
My stomach twists, the coffee feeling like it’s about to come back with a vengeance. “So, this could get worse,” I say quietly.
Scott nods. “It usually does before it gets better.”
I press my lips together. Suddenly this doesn’t feel like something is happeningaroundme. It feels like it’s closing in. And I was already living in the center of it…
Alice exhales softly, then shakes it off like she always does. “Alright,” she exults, forcing some lightness back into her tone. “Enough doom and gloom.”
“Bold strategy,” Jett mutters.
She shoots him a look. “Speaking of distractions,” she says, turning to me, “how hot is he really?”
I blink. “Are you serious right now?”
“Yes.”
